Daily Digest 11/3 - The Rigging of the American Market, The Campaign To 'Ban The Box'

Economy

It’s no secret that there’s serious money to be made in the Chinese economy. My colleagues write about it constantly. It’s driven by the “rapid development” phase of China’s economic history — when companies make real earnings by producing real things that people want and need.

If we can't repay, forget using bankruptcy. Donald Trump can go bankrupt four times and walk away from his debts, but the bankruptcy code doesn't allow homeowners or graduates to reorganize unmanageable debts.

So beleaguered homeowners and graduates don't have any bargaining leverage with creditors -- exactly what the financial industry wants.

The authors note that financial stress may also play a role. Median household incomes of white non-Hispanics began falling in the late 1990s, and the wage stagnation that began with the economic slowdown of the 1970s continues to hit especially hard those with a high school or less education. Coupled with the changing nature of the financial risk Americans face when saving for retirement as well as the recent financial crisis, economic insecurity may weigh heavily on U.S. workers, and take a toll on their health and health-related behaviors.

The high death rates also coincide with self-reported declines in health, mental health and the ability to cope with daily living among middle-aged whites over this same period, the researchers report. More middle-aged whites in 2013 reported chronic pain and displayed poorer liver function than those of the same age in 1999. The fraction in the same age group who reported being unable to work doubled over this period.

Mind you, a lot of what goes on in these havens — where as much as $37 billion is held, they said — is legal. But Mr. Woods has wondered if it is morally proper. By sheltering money in these havens, he said, these corporations manage to escape paying taxes that sustain necessary public services in the countries where they actually make things and hire people (who do pay taxes). And they are anticompetitive, as Mr. Shaxson pointed out in his text, favoring multinational outfits that can afford these complex business arrangements, to the detriment of smaller companies.

Many federal agencies already have hiring policies that delay asking about applicants' criminal histories, and the Office of Personnel Management — the "HR department" of the federal government — recommends that agencies "wait until the end of the hiring process to initiate the suitability determination and consider the applicant’s criminal record," according to the National Employment Law Project (one of the leading advocacy groups supporting ban-the-box policies). Obama is simply moving to codify this, turning the OPM "best practice" recommendations into firm regulations whenever possible.

The new revelations escalate the potential damage to Volkswagen’s finances and reputation. Audi and Porsche are the source of most of the company’s earnings, because profit margins tend to be higher on luxury cars. In contrast to Volkswagen brand cars, which have struggled in the United States, Audi and Porsche are success stories in North America, which is the biggest market for Porsche.

The study uses data from the years 1960 to 2010 to analyze what’s clearly a complex relationship between temperature and economic productivity. The authors’ analysis uses a novel approach to dealing with confounding variables, which allowed them to account for four important factors: (1) constant differences between countries, such as cultural differences, (2) common contemporaneous shocks, such as global price changes, (3) country-specific trends in growth rates, and (4) non-linear effects of annual average temperature and rainfall.

Scientists calculate how much the ice sheet is growing or shrinking from the changes in surface height that are measured by the satellite altimeters. In locations where the amount of new snowfall accumulating on an ice sheet is not equal to the ice flow downward and outward to the ocean, the surface height changes and the ice-sheet mass grows or shrinks.

But it might only take a few decades for Antarctica’s growth to reverse, according to Zwally. “If the losses of the Antarctic Peninsula and parts of West Antarctica continue to increase at the same rate they’ve been increasing for the last two decades, the losses will catch up with the long-term gain in East Antarctica in 20 or 30 years -- I don’t think there will be enough snowfall increase to offset these losses.”

Gold & Silver

Article suggestions for the Daily Digest can be sent to [email protected]. All suggestions are filtered by the Daily Digest team and preference is given to those that are in alignment with the message of the Crash Course and the "3 Es."

The funny part is when the politicians pretend to act like the national debt matters. I can't wait for the next government shut-down so that our government employees get another paid day off.

When will this crap break? I still don't know exactly wtf I'm doing with my life because I can't mentally commit to the modern economy. The only option I see for people who pay attention to all this thunder is to start your business. Right now I am in the beginning of starting two.

Anybody with any insights on label making I would welcome any input they go to print... I recognize the logos are ridiculous, but I'm not a skilled designer.

The American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-IV suggests that roughly 4% of the world’s population demonstrate psychopathic or sociopath tendencies. Therefore, is it not clear that much of the ebb and flow of human civilization operates on this fact? With wage disparities again approaching current levels, it seems that the cycle is in active motion, yet again.

The fact that most of us, naturally, will coalesce into groups of like-minded individuals interested in our own comfort zone. We will share goals and aspirations and, usually, work towards our mutual benefit. This, unfortunately, will work towards somebody else's detriment. In Akerlof and Shiller's recent book, Phishing for Phools, they make a valid point that we all will be milked at some point in our lives. We all have something to offer society and it is up to us to decide whether Adam Smith's invisible hand is around our throat or our udder. The decision is up to us which it will be and may require some painful, but countervailing actions.

I appreciated this interview also, pinecarr and reflector. PCR gives a broad ranging assessment of the "global Chess game." A summary with [my comments in brackets].

The Saker: It has become rather obvious to many, if not most, people that the USA is not a democracy or a republic, but rather a plutocracy run by a small elite, “the 1%” ...or the deep state. What entity would you consider is really at the apex of power in the current US polity?

Paul Craig Roberts: The US is ruled by private interest groups and by the neoconservative ideology.

In my opinion the most powerful of the private interest groups are:

The Military/security Complex

The 4 or 5 mega-sized “banks too big to fail” and Wall Street

The Israel Lobby

Agribusiness

The Extractive industries (oil, mining, timber).

Both political parties, Republicans and Democrats, are dependent on the same private interest groups for campaign funds, so both parties dance to the same masters. [Previously,] Democrats represented the working people and Republicans represented business. [However,] Jobs offshoring destroyed the manufacturing and industrial unions and deprived the Democrats of Labor Union political contributions.

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No matter how rich some families are, they cannot compete with powerful interest groups such as the military/security complex or Wall Street and the banks. There really are no people powerful in themselves. Powerful people are ones that powerful interest groups are behind.

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Paul Craig Roberts: NATO was a US creation allegedly to protect Europe from a Soviet invasion. Its purpose expired in 1991. Today NATO provides cover for US aggression and provides mercenary forces for the American Empire. There are no partners; just vassals. It is Washington’s empire, no one else’s.

The Saker: It is often said that Israel controls the USA. Chomsky, and others, say that it is the USA which controls Israel....

Paul Craig Roberts: I have never seen any evidence that the US controls Israel. All the evidence is that Israel controls the US, but only its MidEast policy. In recent years, Israel or the Israel Lobby, has been able to control or block academic appointments ... and tenure for professors... and has vast influence over the print and TV media.

Anyone who criticizes Israeli policies even in a helpful way is labeled an “anti-Semite,” ... a death-dealing blow. You might as well get hit with a hellfire missile. [!!!]

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Paul Craig Roberts: The US economy is hollowed out. There has been no real median family income growth for decades. Alan Greenspan as Fed Chairman used an expansion of consumer credit to take the place of the missing growth in consumer income, but the population is now too indebted to take on more. So there is nothing to drive the economy.

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The Saker: do presidential elections still matter?

Paul Craig Roberts: The only way a presidential election could matter would be if the elected president had behind him a strong movement. Without a movement, the president has no independent power and no one to appoint who will do his bidding. Presidents are captives.

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The Saker: What about the armed forces?

Paul Craig Roberts: The US military is a creature of the armaments industries. The whole purpose of making general is to be qualified to be a consultant to the “defense” industry, or to become an executive or on the board of a “defense” contractor. The military serves as the source of retirement careers when the generals make the big money. The US military is totally corrupt. Read Andrew Cockburn’s book, Kill Chain.

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The Saker: Do you think that the people who run the USA today realize that they are on a collision course with Russia which could lead to thermonuclear war?

Paul Craig Roberts: ...There is belief that the US can win a nuclear war with Russia. There was an article in Foreign Affairs around 2005 or 2006 in which this conclusion was reached. The belief in the winnability of nuclear war has been boosted by faith in ABM defenses. The argument is that the US can hit Russia so hard in a preemptive first strike that Russia would not retaliate in fear of a second blow.

I think Putin should focus on Europe and make Europe aware that Russia expects an American attack and will have no choice except to wipe out Europe in response. Putin should encourage Europe to break off from NATO in order to prevent World War 3. If Germany were to exit NATO the empire would fold.

The hostility toward Russia goes back to the Wolfowitz Doctrine:

“Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere, that poses a threat on the order of that posed formerly by the Soviet Union. This is a dominant consideration underlying the new regional defense strategy and requires that we endeavor to prevent any hostile power from dominating a region whose resources would, under consolidated control, be sufficient to generate global power.”

Russia is hated because Russia (and China) is a check on Washington’s unilateral uni-power. This check is what will lead to war.

If the Russians and Chinese do not expect a pre-emptive nuclear attack from Washington, they will be destroyed. [because there is belief in Washington Neocon circles that a sneak pre-emptive nuclear attack on Russia could "win."]